KORAU WAS NUPE: HOW KATSINA ORIGINATED FROM NUPE Today the Nupe and Katsina people love playing with each other wherever they meet; they play pranks and crack jokes against one another whenever they are together. And the Katsina and Nupe people have very cordial and respectable relationship with one another. Everybody knows that there must be an historical basis for this remarkable relationship between the Nupe and Katsina people. Yet, nobody knows the basis of this relationship. It is in a bid to unravel this historical relationship between the Nupe and Katsina people that we decided to take a deep delve into the comparative history of the two peoples, namely, the Nupe and the Katsina people. Sir Richmond Herbert Palmer, who was a paramount authority on the history of ancient Nigeria and who also served as the Lieutenant Governor of Northern Nigeria in colonial times, wrote that Katsina first emerged in history somewhere around 950 AD and that its initial ruling dynasties where those of the Durbawa and Wangara of the Habe peoples. But the Habe were a Black African Negro people who came originally from KinNupe, from the banks of the River Niger here in Central KinNupe. In fact the same Sir H.R. Palmer, in many of his works, documented the fact that both the Durbawa and the Wangarawa trace their origins back to here, KinNupe. Sir H.R. Palmer categorically wrote that the Wangara people trace their origin back to KinNupe and that the Wangarawa and the Nupe people are one and the same people. All these, of course, simply means that the initial and original ruling dynasties of Katsina, that is the Durbawa and the Wangarawa dynasties, were Nupe dynasties. As a matter of fact Katsina was originally a Nupe settlement through and through. The present Katsina was originally known as Katsina Laka. But Katsina Laka itself was originally located to the south of today’s Katsina. That Old Katsina, or Katsina Laka, was actually located in KinNupe. Katsina Laka was located in a place known to historians as Kotorkoshi-Kogo. In fact Katsina Laka actually originated from Kotorkoshi Kogo. This Kotorkoshi Kogo was located in the Northern part of the Greater KinNupe of those. Kotorkoshi Kogo was a Nupe kingdom through and through. In fact it was known as Kotorkoshi Kogo, or the Kotorkoshi of Kogo, for the simple reason that KinNupe used to be known in very ancient times as ‘Kogo’ or ‘Kawkaw’ or ‘Kunku’ or ‘Gungu’ or, simply, as Gao. Sir H.R. Palmer, and many other authorities including Professor Alan Ryder of course, wrote that KinNupe was known in ancient times as Gao, Gungu or Kawkaw. It is this Gungu or Kawkaw that was also pronounced as Koko or Kogo. And Kotorkoshi was known as Kotorkoshi Kogo in order to emphasize the fact that it was located in Kogo or KinNupe. In the beginning Katsina was part and parcel of KinNupe. As late as the end of the 18th century it was still a common knowledge that Nupe was the language of the people of Katsina. That was why in 1812 Adelung and Vater published the book Mithraides in which they reported that the Nupe language was the original language of the people of Katsina. As a matter of fact Katsina was actually founded by the Nupe people. Katsina traditions also confirm the fact that Katsina was founded by Nupencizhi. To this very day Katsina traditions of origin narrate that Katsina was founded by Korau or Koro. Sir H.R. Palmer have pointed out long ago that Korau was also known as Koro. Professor Alan Ryder also confirms the fact that Korau was merely a dialectal variant of Koro. But the Koro people are the same as the Gara and both of the names have been, in ancient times, the national name of the Nupe people. To this very day a significant section of the Nupe people are known as the Gara. And, Professor Alan Ryder, on the authority of Sir H.R. Palmer, demonstrated the fact that the Gara Nupe people are the same as the ancient Koro people of history. As a matter of fact all the present Koro peoples of today are merely a variety of descendants from the ancient Koro or Gara Nupe people. In fact Leo Africanus, the Andalusian diplomat and globetrotter, reported that in the 16th century the whole of Northern Nigeria, and not just today’s Katsina alone, was dominated and populated only by the Gara Nupe people. Leo Africanus categorically observed that Gara Nupe language was the Lingu Franca spoken over the whole of today’s Northern Nigeria much the same way that we see the Hausa language spoken over the whole of Northern Nigeria today. What Leo Africanus observation implies is that as late as the 16th century there was not a Hausa people or the Hausa language in Northern Nigeria, instead there were just the Nupe people and the Nupe language of Gara the whole of the Northern Nigeria of those days. It was these Gara Nupe people that the Katsina traditions referred to as the Korau or Koro people who came to unseat the Sanau or Sara, also an ancient Nupe people now known as the Kisra or Yisa, from power over Old Katsina. In fact Sir H.R. Palmer wrote that the original rulers of Katsina were known as the Diggera or Dagara. These Diggera or Dagara were the same aboriginal rulers of Hausaland whom Bayajida met at Daura and, in fact, Sir H.R. Palmer have suggested that the very name Daura itself is derived from the ancient royal title ‘Dagara’. But then, Diggera or Dagara was the same royal title of the Gara kings and emperors of KinNupe in ancient times. Dagara is the same as Tagara or AtaGara which was the royal title of the Nupe kings and emperors of the AtaGara kingdom which flourished and reigned on the banks of the River Niger right here in Central KinNupe in very ancient times. In the days of these AtaGara Nupe kings KinNupe was known as Guangara, Guanga, or Gungu, or, as we have mentioned before, Kogo. And, very interestingly enough, Leo Africanus actually located Guangara in KinNupe as late as the 15th century. And Leo Africanus observed that the original or Old Hausa language was spoken at Guangara, that is KinNupe. This, of course, means that the Hausa language originated from Guangara KinNupe in former times. Sir H.R. Palmer, the greatest of all Colonial historians, then wrote that Korau or Koro was actually a Wangara Nupe man who came from KinNupe – variously known in former times as Kotorkoshi-Kogo, Guangara or Katsina Laka – to found and establish Katsina. It was a Gara or Koro Nupe man, known to Katsina traditions today as Korau, who came to found and establish Katsina into a kingdom. The truth of the matter is that Katsina was found and established by the Koro or Gara Nupe people. It is in this regard that Sultan Bello, the son of Shehu Usmanu Dan Fodiyo, wrote that Katsina was originally a colony of the Koro or Gara Nupe people. Yes, Katsina was originally a settlement populated only by the Nupe Gara or Koro people. In those days actually Katsina was part and parcel of the Greater KinNupe that was far larger than today’s KinNupe. Kotorkoshi Kogo, somewhere around today’s Kwayambana, and Katsina Laka were all located within the territorial boundaries of the KinNupe of those days. It is in this regard that Professor Elizabeth Isichei wrote that Nupe was principally involved in the early history of Katsina. And the Katsina Chronicle itself admitted that in the beginning Katsina and Nupe shared a lot, including land, in common. Even Kumayo, whom the Katsina traditions said was one of the founders Katsina a long time before Korau or Koro, was also a Nupe man from KinNupe. The point here is that KinNupe used to be referred to as Koroma which simply means ‘The Land of Koro’ or ‘The Land of the River Niger’. This Koroma was also pronounced as Kuruma and it is the same that is shortened into Kuma while the Nupe people were referred to as Kumaya or Kumayo. Original Katsina was located at Katsina Laka which was, in reality, sited within the boundaries of ancient KinNupe. It was only in latter times that Katsina Laka migrated out of KinNupe to become the Katsina of today. More importantly is the fact that Katsina Laka was also known as Kotorkoshi-Kogo or, more pristinely, Kotorkoshi Kogoro. Kotorkoshi is actually a compound of two ancient names, namely, Koto and Koshi. Starting with the first word, Koto, we see that Koto was the ancient name for the River Niger. Koto is actually a shortened form of Koroto or Kwarata which is simply an ancient word meaning ‘Of River Niger’. And we can see the Hausa people using this word in latter times such as in Koton Karifi, that is, the River Niger of the Kororofa, in Tabkin Koto, or the Tabki of the River Niger, etc, etc. And the second word in Kotorkoshi is Koshi. Now, this word, Koshi, is a very ancient national name of the Nupe Nation and it is actually a latter Hausa corruption of the original Nupe word Kasha, Katsa or, as we transcribe it today, Katcha. It is this Kasha that was known in former times as Kashana or Kashna which is what is written today as Katsina. In very ancient times there was the Nupe nation of Kisra variously called Yisa, Esa, Kasa, Kasha, Kashana or Kashna and it was located in KinNupe. It is the same, Kasha, that the Hausa tongue pronounced as Koshi. And this Kasha or Koshi Nupe kingdom was located on the banks of the River Niger right here in Central KinNupe; that is why the River Niger was referred to as the Kotor-Koshi, or, ‘The River Niger of the Koshi kingdom’. This Koshi is the same that was the kingdom, and later empire, established by the Yisa or Kisra Nupe people who came from the outside world, outside the African continent, to settle in KinNupe and set up a mighty kingdom and empire. Several centuries after the Yisa, Kasha or Koshi kingdom there arose on the same banks of the River Niger here in Central KinNupe the ancient Nupe kingdom of Gara. In the days of the Gara Nupe kingdom the Nupe people were known as the Wangara and KinNupe was known as Kagara. The ancient Nupe national name Kagara was also pronounced as Kagoro or Kogoro and was usually shortened into Kogo. It is this Kogo that we see in the ancient name Kotorkoshi-Kogo. In those days the River Niger was simply known as the Kotorkoshi even though the Yisa, Kasha or Koshi kingdom was no more. And the River Niger became known as the Kotorkoshi-Kogo in the heydays of the Kagara or Kogoro or Kogo kingdom of the Nupe peoples. It was from the banks of the River Niger, that is Kotorkoshi Kogo, that some Nupe colonists moved northward to found and established the Original or Old Katsina that was known as Katsina Laka. That Katsina Laka was situated to the northern borders of ancient KinNupe and it was from that Katsina Laka that the founders, also Nupe, of modern Katsina moved further north to found and establish modern Katsina. Sultan Bello then wrote that it was only in latter times that the Nupe and the Katsina became separated. Katsina traditions also maintain that Katsina was established, in latter times, by Kumayo. This Kumayo was said to be the son of Bawo or Bawa who was in turn the son of Bayajida. The interesting point here is that it is only Nupe people who were known in ancient times as Bawa or Bawo. This ancient name Bawa is actually a shortened form of Barawa or Barawo which simply means ‘The Person from Bara’. And Bara is, of course, the same as Bwara, Gbwara, Gwara or Gara which was the name of the ancient Nupe people. In any case, and as Professor Roger Blench documents, the Nupe people were known, right unto historical times, as the Ibara or Bara people. In former times a person coming from from KinNupe, that is an Ibara or Bara person, will be referred to as a ‘Wa-Bara’ or ‘Bara-wa’ and this Barawa was also pronounced as Barawo which, in latter times, became shortened into Bawa or Bawo. In fact the Nupe people of Bara also used to be referred to as the Barani or Baranu from which we got our modern Barnu, Bornu or Borno. Of course, and as I discussed in plenary details in my book titled ‘How the People of Bornu Originated From Nupe’, there was an Original or Old Bornu, also known as Bornu Gungu, which was located on the banks of the River Niger right here in Central KinNupe and not on the banks of the Lake Chad as we see today. Sir H.R. Palmer, Professor Alan Ryder, Sultan Bello, Captain Hugh Clapperton, and many others mentioned this Old Borno or Borno Gungu which was the Original Borno located on the banks of the River Niger here in Central KinNupe. In fact it was from that Original and Old Bornu, located in Central KinNupe, that the modern Bornu on the banks of the Lake Chad originated. So, and as we were discussing, Bawo, the son of Kumayo was a Nupe man because his very name, or epithet, Bawo unmistakably confirms that. But Bawo, or his ancestors, came from the Original or Old Bornu which was a Nupe kingdom located in Central KinNupe in ancient times. It is not surprising, therefore, that Sultan Bello categorically maintain that Bayajida, the grandfather of Bawo, came from Bornu. Bayajida was a Nupe man who came from the Original or Old Bornu which was located in Central KinNupe. Katsina was originally a Nupe settlement through and through. In fact there is just too much documentary evidence in substantiation of the fact that Katsina was originally a Nupe settlement through and through. So many authorities, including the Katsina Chronicle, Professor Elizabeth Isichei, and many other authorities related that Katsina and KinNupe used to be one and the same in the past. Katsina was originally located right inside KinNupe. Sultan Bello wrote that the Katsina and Nupe people used to be one and the same people in the past. Just as is the case with almost all other ancient Nigerian kingdoms and empires, there was an Original or Old Katsina which was located right here in Central KinNupe. It was this Old Katsina that gradually migrated out of KinNupe northwards to its present location in Hausaland. This Original or Old Katsina was known as Katsina Laka. The point here, however, is that Katsina Laka was located right here in KinNupe. In fact both Sir H.R. Palmer and Professor Michael Crowder wrote that Katsina Laka was the same Nupe kingdom of Wangara variously known as AtaGara, Ndakolo or Kotorkoshi Kogo. Actually the names AtaGara, Ndakolo or Kotorkoshi-Kogo are one and the same name pronounced differently as dialectal variants. AtaGara is a combination of Ata and Gara. Now then, Ata is the same as Nda since ‘t’ and ‘d’ are interchangeable phonemes. And also Gara and Kolo are one and the same word since ‘g’ and ‘k’ are interchangeable and ‘r’ and ‘l’ are also interchangeable. So, and from all these, we can see that ‘Nda’ is the same as ‘Ata’ and ‘Gara’ is the same as ‘Koro’ such that Nda Kolo is the same as AtaGara. And it was this AtaGara Nupe super kingdom that was original Katsina or Kotorkoshi-Kogo. As we have mentioned before world renowned authorities, including Sir H.R. Palmer and Professor Michael Crowder have demonstrated that Kotorkoshi was located right here in the heart of KinNupe. In fact the Kano Chronicle itself, Sir C.R. Niven, Sir H.R. Palmer, and many other authorities have authoritatively pointed out that the fact that AtaGara or Kotorkoshi-Kogo, that is Original Katsina, was a Nupe kingdom which was located right here in the heart of KinNupe. AtaGara was a kingdom founded by the Gara ancient Nupe people. The Kano Chronicle and the Katsina traditions are unanimous that Katsina was founded by a Nupe man called Korau or Koro. In those days only Nupe people were known or referred to as Korau or Koro because they came from KinNupe which was located on the River Niger known as Korau or Koro. Dr. Guy Nicholas wrote that Korau or Koro was a name that was used to refer to Nupe people. The River Niger was known as Korau or Koro and all Nupe people coming from KinNupe were, accordingly, referred to as Korau or Koro. Korau or Koro, the founder of Katsina, was therefore a Nupe man from KinNupe. It is on this note that Sultan Bello categorically wrote that Katsina was founded by a colony of Nupeko or Kororofa Nupe people. Then Heinrich Barth, A. Mischlich, J. Lippert, and many others said that the father of Korau or Koro, the Nupe founder of Katsina, was known as Agoregi or Agaragi. The point here, however, is that it was the Nupe kings of Gara or AtaGara that were known as the Garagi. The kings of AtaGara or Gara were known as Garagi and this will simply make Koro, the founder of Katsina, a Nupe prince of AtaGara. It was only in latter times that Katsina became a separate entity from KinNupe. But, and even then, the Katsina that separated and migrated out of KinNupe remained a Nupe colony through and through even when it eventually got settled down in todays Hausaland. As a matter of fact Katsina remained a Nupe colony right unto historical times. That is why as late as 1812 the book Mithraides was still reporting that Katisna was a colony of Nupe people. Picture: Gidan Korau or Emi Ndakolo at the Emir of Katsinas Palace, Katsina.
Posted on: Sat, 10 Jan 2015 05:00:45 +0000
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